A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.
– Sidney Sheldon

A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car.
– Kenneth Tynan

A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self–addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.
– Ring Lardner

A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.
– Marguerite Yourcenar

All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary – it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.
– Somerset Maugham

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.
– Christopher Hampton

Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.
– Lawrence Kasdan

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self–deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.
– Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
–Somerset Maugham

Writing a novel is like paddling from Boston to London in a bathtub. Sometimes the damn tub sinks. It's a wonder that most of them don't.
– Stephen King

Writing a novel is like spelunking. You kind of create the right path for yourself. But, boy, are there so many points at which you think, absolutely, I'm going down the wrong hole here.
– Chang–rae Lee

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
–Samuel Johnson